Tools Featured in this Teardown

Introduction

Google is looking to bring the robot assistants of the future to the world today. Equipped with Google Assistant, the Google Home is raring to work with smart home devices, support Google services, and answer your everyday questions. Does it have what it takes to fulfill your futuristic fantasies and smart home dreams? Time to tear down the house Home!

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This teardown is not a repair guide. To repair your Google Home, use our service manual.

We revisited this step after seeing your comment and noticed that we worded this step poorly. Thank you for the heads up! We have since gone in and edited. For those that are curious, here are the specs from Google.

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Here's the source of our board removal strife: A layer of super sticky adhesive, keeping the capacitive board in contact with the plastic upper case.

This round green grid is half of an array of capacitors—with the other half buried in another, deeper PCB layer. By measuring the total capacitance of each row and column, the controller can detect when—and pinpoint where—your finger is modifying the capacity of the grid through capacitative coupling. Science!

Help….my daughter gave me her Amazon home which she bought in Oz. Like a fool i thought you could plug it in, in the uk (same voltage etc). Now its blown the chip that has the green surround in the picture in step 8. Anyone know where I can get a replacement motherboard or how to fix.

I would guess a serial or USB port that the hardware manufacturer uses for initial programming; probably special base stations in the factory they plonk these things down on before applying that sticker to the bottom or the colored base. Though it's a bit perplexing since the USB port is accessible with the colored base removed.

Two of the contacts are connected to each other (outer two) through conductive material below the film and share thicker planes/copper to the ribbon connector that goes to the motherboard. I highly suspect that the outer two are electrical ground connectors, designed to provide some degree of shielding for the two lines in the center, which are likely differentially paired signals. This would suggest the connector is half duplex serial (as USB has a 5V, D+, D-, and GND connector).

I'm almost tempted to break out an ohmmeter and try and figure out where those signals go on the board.

Probably, it is plain UART, the Rx, Tx, Gnd & the Vcc lines….most easy & reliable way to flash FW & debug..can someone check the lines using a Multimeter or connect a Logic Analyzer to see the signalling…the signalling graph will give a clue of the kind of signals carried by the lines…

No wonder my ‘Home always sounds muffled, like it’s buried under a pile of jackets. The off-axis response of the speaker is only 5kHz or so—-you have to be right on axis to get a decent sound. Thanks for the link!

Amazon advertises that in the Echo, the mute button uses analog electronics to disconnect the microphone so that it's impossible for a software hack to ignore the mute button. Can you tell if this is the case with Google Home?

That may be the case and I can say people would like the option. I can also say from experience it is most likely that it's for powering the unit during final testing. Now that said, it is a secondary power source. So I would expect DIY'rs and Makers to utilize this feature before Google does.

But unlike the Echo, the Home can send (well, control) audio to a Chromecast Audio (or two, or three, in sync!), which is far more versatile than having an audio output on the device itself. I've been using various Echoes (including a couple of output-jack-equipped Dots) since their first release, but the Chromecast connection is the primary reason why I purchased a Google Home.

It has Bluetooth but it seems there is no way to pair it as Bluetooth speaker. Very inconvenient when I want to watch videos the tablet but have louder speaker. With Echo it is easy just annoying 1sec latency, hoped Google would be better but no such functionality exposed.

Cut the msrp by 60% to 70%, or more in some cases. This is so for every unit sold they can produce another one, pay for manufacturing (including transit) and make a profit. Thats my loose guess for google.

Thank you for this! Discovered too late. So ... what is the final word on 802.15.4. Is there a chip in there? I speculated about Thread in Google Home here, with a nod to this teardown: http://www.cepro.com/article/ces_2017_vo.... Thanks again!

My question, too. What adapter would I need to accomplish this? There's a replacement power adapter available on eBay from a seller in China, but they want $30. There's got to be a way more reasonable means of accomplishing this.

There is an eBay seller from China offering a replacement adapter for $29.99. Search item no. 322441245141. That seems high for what it is. Specifically what would the layman look for in an alternative, cheaper solution, like maybe in a universal adapter set?

I find the Google home speaker to have excellent bass but higher frequencies sound muffled. The Echo on the other hand has much crisper and clearer highs. Could this be to do with the fact that the Google just has one speaker without a tweeter where is the Echo seems to have one of each? Or am I misunderstanding something.

What's all that empty space in the plastic cavity above the speakers? Looks unnecessary, and explains why the mini is so much smaller. They could've eliminated it and made the Home a couple inches shorter (?)

Help….my daughter gave me her Amazon home which she bought in Oz. Like a fool i thought you could plug it in, in the uk (same voltage etc). Now its blown the chip that has the green surround in the picture in step 8. Anyone know where I can get a replacement motherboard or how to fix.

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